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Citizenship 145

who are poor over the long - term, it is argued, reproduce a “ culture of
poverty, ” using welfare to avoid working in paid employment and lacking
motivation to integrate with the rest of society. The underclass is seen as
made up of single mothers dependent on welfare and semi - criminal men
who do not work, and is associated with a supposedly black lifestyle in
which women have children by many fathers who do not provide for
them. The large numbers of black people living in poverty in the ghettos
of American cities are seen to make up an “ underclass. ” In actual fact,
most of the poor in the US do not live in urban areas and most are not
black (Fainstein, 1996 ). Nevertheless, theorists of the “ underclass ” see it
as reproducing poverty. In the US, young, unmarried, or childless men

have no automatic right to state benefits; they have the right to insurance -
based unemployment benefit, but growing numbers do not qualify for it

because they have worked too little and made too few contributions. It
is practically only single mothers who are eligible for the means - tested

welfare benefit, Aid to Families with Dependent Children. Charles Murray,
one of the most important proponents of the New Right view of the
“ underclass, ” argues from a rational choice perspective that welfare
benefits make dependence on the state a more attractive possibility for

many women than marriage or paid employment (Lister, 1996 ). The solu-
tion is to alter the rational choices of poor mothers by making them work
for welfare.
In the 1980s, William Julius Wilson tried to produce a different under-
standing of the “ underclass, ” arguing that it should be seen as an eco-
nomic and social phenomenon rather than the result of rational individual
choices. He argued that the “ underclass ” is synonymous with “ the ghetto, ”
the result of the black middle - classes moving out of the inner cities and
the worsening economic prospects for the deprived African - Americans
who remain there. In Wilson ’ s view, the most important problem for
members of the “ underclass ” is social isolation; many families in poor
areas of the city experience long - term unemployment, and, because they
have few contacts with those in steady jobs, welfare dependence becomes
a way of life (Wilson, 1987 ). However, despite Wilson ’ s stress on struc-
tural causes, his use of the term “ underclass ” is seen as too close to the
moral terminology of the New Right to challenge their interpretation of
urban poverty. As a result, he has abandoned the term, preferring “ ghetto
poor ” (Silver, 1996 ).
In Europe, the term “ socially excluded ” is more commonly used to
distinguish the poor from the rest of society. “ Social exclusion ” came to
prominence in France in the mid - 1980s to refer to growing unemploy-
ment, marginalization, and perceptions of a general increase in the